Star Trek Sequel May Have a Title, But Nobody Knows What It Means

With the exception of a handful of leaked set photos, notoriously secretive director J.J. Abrams has managed to keep a tight lid on the details of his Star Trek sequel. Four months after filming wrapped, we still can’t say with any certainty what villain Sherlock star Benedict Cumberbatch is playing — it definitely isn’t Khan, though — or what the plot might entail. However, we may now know the movie’s title — for all the good that does us.

According to the fan site TrekMovie.com, the sequel will be called Star Trek Into Darkness, noteworthy for the absence of a colon, a further break with franchise tradition (with the exception of 2009’s Star Trek, every film in the series dating back to 1979’s Star Trek: The Motion Picture has included the punctuation). ComingSoon seems to confirm the title, noting that Paramount Pictures has registered the domain names startrekintodarkness.com and startrekintodarknessmovie.com. However, the studio has yet to make an official announcement.

As odd as the lack of a colon is — does “Trek” become a verb? — TrekMovie reports it’s by design, and points to a July interview in which co-writer Damon Lindelof addressed the struggle to find the right title. “There’s no word that comes after the colon after Star Trek that’s cool,” he said. “Not that Star Trek: Insurrection or First Contact aren’t good titles, it’s just that everything that people are turned off about when it comes to Trek is represented by the colon.”

Punctuation or no, Star Trek Into Darkness doesn’t tell us anything about the film’s plot. Will the Enterprise crew literally be journeying (er, trekking) into darkness, or is it a figurative reference about the mood, or about the plans of Cumberbatch’s character?